Did McLaren Jump the Gun with Pérez?

[Fenderman]

i think it would be more accurate to say "Checo tried to overtake JB, failed miserably and nearly took him out". Apart from that I tend to agree with RickD. Checo is obviously quite quick when he engages his brain but his race-craft sucks. He seems to have no understanding of the long game and no tactical nous at all. He's not alone in that and I wonder if something is missing in the driver training department.

Teamwork education should be part of the basic training regimen throughout the lower formulae, especially the so-called feeder classes GP3 and GP2. As RickD says, working together tactically the McLaren drivers may have been able to get better results for them individually and as a team. It's all very well for Martin Whitmarsh to say they will "have a talk about it" but a drubbing down of either driver is not the solution. He needs to address their deficiencies with regard to teamwork and team tactics. If as Jenson said after the race that a following driver can save fuel and tyre wear, then they should use the tactic of leap-frogging with clean passes in the DRS zones to optimise lap times and track position. Then if things have panned out to their advantage as a team in the latter stages of the race the gloves can come off.

It seems to be second nature to motor cycle racers as demonstrated by Marc Marquez this weekend at The Circuit of the Americas. Just turned 20 years of age, he.became the youngest rider to take pole and win a senior class motorcycle grand prix. He also set the MGP lap record for the Austin, Texas circuit. After a duff start and dropping back to third he got himself into second place behind his team-mate Dani Pedrosa, The two lapped within a tenth of each other until, with ten laps to go, Marquez pulled the pin, made a beauty of a pass, took the lead and went on to the victory.

It was a master class in race craft and the tactics are as applicable to fighting in the midfield as they are to fighting for a win. The bottom line is that there is more to racing than going as fast as you can and overtaking at every opportunity. Maybe young F1 drivers should pay a bit more attention to motorcycle racing, They might just learn something.

Edit: Forgot to mention that Jorge Lorenzo, trailing in third place, would have been in with a shout at the victory had Pedrosa and Marquez got into a dust up like Perez and Button.

 

[RickD]

Fenderman - Thank you for that, I am just saying it the way I saw it yesterday. The same as I would say Rosberg could have finished much higher up without all the scrapping he had with multiple drivers. Hamilton came from way down the field to finish 5th by not getting in many fights until near the end of the GP, so he does seem to have learnt that the fastest way to the finish is to stay out of it as much as possible. It just seems to me that those with a dislike of a certain driver massively praise anything any other driver does against them and do not seem to see the race objectively after that. I do think it is something a driver should learn before reaching F1 or if not, within their first season or two.

 

[Fenderman]

Indeed. In fact all the top riders in MotoGP have demonstrated their tactical nous well before reaching the senior category. The old 125 class was a genuine training ground where the top teams and their riders have always worked as I described. It's no coincidence that all of the top riders in MGP were champions in the key feeder classes.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Nobody is praising Checo for catching Button's tyre. I never cheer against a driver, only for a driver. I am glad you said "it seems" because at least that means that you aknowledge that it is only your perspective and could well be wrong. Things are not always as they seem.

For a bit more balance and objectivity, here is what Gary Anderson has to say:

If Perez is quicker than Button, the team will know and they should tell Button to let him by, or tell Perez to go ahead. If he's not quicker and he's just having a bit of argy-bargy, tell him to stay behind. But the team has to do that.
McLaren say they don't use team orders, but that's not team orders, it's trying to get the best result possible at the end of the race.
At halfway through the race like that, everything could have been lost.

In the end, Button dropped back because he had rooted his tyres and needed to make an extra stop. Well, that means Perez was quicker, so why not tell Button to let him through and Perez might have got another place?

He essentially blames the team and I agree. It's one thing letting your drivers race but it has to be to an end and that should be to the best end. When Jenson got on the radio complaining that Perez was barking at his heels like a loose terrier, which he was, then they should have just told him to get out of the way and release him. Instead, McLaren did the usual thing of not managing.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

But then for further balance still, here is what Andrew Benson has to say.

In the last two races Perez has angered Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso and Button. He only has Vettel to go and he will have a full contingent of F1's active world champions on his case

 

[Fenderman]

It's not often that I am in full agreement with Andrew Benson but he's right on that one.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I think Gary Anderson is spot on, too. The management did a bad job of managing their drivers and both drivers did a bad job of managing themselves. I said on the DRS thread that raw racing ability is not enough for F1. Checo has raw racing ability but he seems to lack intellect and self-control. I wonder if he has the capacity to improve in this area. Vettel seems to have improved a hell of a lot in this area and now looks like one of the most savvy drivers on the grid. I doubt Checo will ever get the same opportunities and support that Vettel has had and I also just don't think, on the face of it, that he has the aptitude. I hope he proves me wrong. I've been proven wrong many many times before.

 

[Hamberg]

The first overtake between the two was Button on Perez was it not? Button using DRS to his full advantage to overtake his team mate that actually was a little quicker on the day. Checo hit his tyres yes, but Jenson ran him off the road and EN is absolutely right that Button wouldn't comment in the post race analysis.

They both fought with each other, they both were unduly aggressive with each other. Jenson kicked it off by overtaking first, Perez carried on by trying to get back in front.

If Jenson was the mature, smart, driver superb at managing his tyres that we are led to believe, he should have conceded that place knowing the damage it would do to his tyres.

He thought the team would tell Perez to back off and rightly accepted post race that it shouldn't be that way.

 

[Fenderman]

My jury is still out on whether Vettel has learned that or not. Poor old Webber hasn't been anywhere near him since their dogfight. I just don't see those two co-operating, especially if Mark keeps having all the car trouble.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I thought that all you wanted to see was people race Rick? Seems you've changed your tune quite a bit when your boy suffers.

You cried for a week after Merc protected their best result ever, and now you're advocating for McLaren drivers to try and protect a possible P5 and 6. Hypocrisy oozes from these sentiments.

 

[Road of Bones]

I think that JB's protestations are less about the fact that he was outpaced by Perez yesterday, but more the perceived lack of "track-respect" accorded him by Perez in the process - he and Lewis had some great on-track battles as team-mates, which Lewis tended to win, but that they were conducted without contact or wheel-banging (except that one instance in Turkey, and Canada 2011, I suppose), and he never complained about Lewis' driving standards. Given that Checo has irritated many other competitors already this season, I get the impression that this is JB adding his voice to the others as a gentle warning to his teammate to race more maturely, before the problem becomes irresolvable. This is less about intra-team rivalry, than making sure that you can trust your competitors not to take you out by being rash.

 

[RickD]

KekeTheKing - You are so ingenious its nearly funny. Did you miss thee part where I said that they could have raced at the end once they were clear of other drivers, or did that fail to sink in once again?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

By then, though, Button would have held up Perez for so long that even the 6th that he scored would probably be out of reach, rather than the 5th that he almost definitely would have scored had the team told Jenson to let him go.

 

[KekeTheKing]

once they were clear of other drivers

You consider this a likely scenario?

 

[Josh]

Insinuating that Pérez tried to take Button out and tried to give him a puncture (on purpose) is really disingenuous imo. Did Pérez make mistakes? Sure he did, and I don't think his racecraft is fully up to scratch yet, but he was faster than Button and McLaren should have realized this and told Button to let him through. Instead they nearly took each other out because they were both being over-aggressive.

 

[Slyboogy]

I agree with Gary Anderson and Andrew Benson.

Perez is erratic, but he was quicker yesterday no doubt, I'm sure if it was the other way round, Button would be radioing in asking to let hm through.

Button's engineer told him over the radio that he was fighting Webber, if McLaren let Perez through, then Perez would likely have passed Webber quicker and would have kept 5th place away from Hamilton.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

I'm not sure I agree that McLaren should have told Button to let Perez through, but Button certainly wasted his tyres fending Perez off when Perez was clearly faster. It was a bit of a strange decision from Button to defend so hard, especially given his comments after the race about being able to save fuel and tyres by following someone. I doubt Button would do the same should the situation arise again.

 

[Brogan]

So if I have this right, Brawn, Mercedes and Hamilton were at fault when Rosberg was ordered to hold station behind Hamilton, instead of Rosberg being allowed past.

Hamilton was heavily criticised for not taking the decision himself to let Rosberg past.

Now Pérez is at fault for wanting to get past Button, despite there being no order from the team to hold station.

Yet I don't hear the same people complaining about the team not allowing Pérez past nor criticising Button for not letting him past.

Funny that.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I'm not sure I agree that McLaren should have told Button to let Perez....

...It was a bit of a strange decision from Button to defend so hard

This is why they should have intervened. Button was not displaying the sense to do so himself and the McLaren pit-wall were better informed to advise the drivers. The McLaren drivers were too busy fighting each other to remember that it's the other guys that they are there to beat.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

Perhaps the lack of intervention is proof that Perez is McLaren's contracted No. 1 driver?

edit: ExtremeNinja didn't McLaren tell Button he was fighting Webber? Maybe they should have been more vociferous, then again McLaren have always made it clear that they have an equal driver policy. So it appears they've shot themselves in the foot again if this is the case.